and future Prospects. 5477 



ses, in other words an "interpretation of Nature, 1 ' which was, sooner or 

 later, sure to be assailed. He resisted to the last the transcendental 

 doctrines of Goethe ; the simple-minded Oken he looked on as a well- 

 meaning, honest observer, but labouring under extreme delusions pe- 

 culiar to the German or Gothic mind ; GeofTroy, who, taking the same 

 view of Oken personally, had yet adopted the greater part of his doc- 

 trine, was personally attacked by Cuvier in the Academy, where his 

 great reputation silenced all opponents. With DeBlainville, originally 

 his own assistant, equal to himself as an anatomist, Cuvier was more 

 cautious ; and this course was the easier to adopt, seeing that 

 DeBlainville, up to the moment of Cuvier' s death, had not committed 

 himself to any theory, — to any interpretation of Nature. He has done 

 so since. His facts are indisputable ; but they admit, like most facts, 

 of a variety of interpretations. Since the demise of the illustrious 

 author of the e Osteographie,' some of his views have been submitted, 

 with all due caution, to the Academy, for that body would not even 

 now listen to a direct attack on " le grand Cuvier," though backed by 

 the deservedly great name of DeBlainville. BufTon, whom Cuvier so 

 greatly and unfairly undervalued, begins to be mentioned, and zoolo- 

 gists have been found bold enough to speak of him as a great and 

 illustrious man, a profound thinker and original genius. A matchless 

 writer he was ever known to be, scarcely equalled, and certainly not 

 surpassed, by Voltaire himself. But Cuvier had traduced his writings, 

 holding them up superciliously to contempt ; sneered at the amiable 

 Daubenton, his anatomical assistant ; boldly asserted that Aristotle's 

 account of the elephant was infinitely more accurate than BufTon's, 

 thus indirectly aiding the parti-preire, who never sleep, and who 

 never, on either side the Channel, forgave BufTon, haters of truth and 

 genius as they must of necessity ever be. By such means the un- 

 assailable Cuvier had lowered the reputation of BufTon to that of " a 

 pretty good naturalist, who had described in a pleasing style the his- 

 tory of some mammiferous quadrupeds " ! 



Thus originated a new era, the Cuvierian. For somewhat more 

 than half a century it has held, and perhaps still holds, undisputed 

 sway over the scientific, I had almost said the intellectual, world. 

 Its importance to man, it is true, has of late received some severe 

 shocks in presence of other grander discoveries ; the rail, the screw, 

 the steam hammer, the diggings, the hot blast and the cold blast, the 

 Minie rifle and the Lancaster gun, such things as these unquestion- 

 ably throw the ' Ossemens Fossiles ' into the shade. Let us hope, 

 however, for the honour of humanity, that civilization may never attain 



